


Enemy of My Enemy

by MissShelockHolmes



Series: Enemy of My Enemy AU [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Darth Plagueis vs Darth Sidious through civil war, M/M, Poor Anakin, Poor Obi-Wan, Slow Burn, The Jedi Council aren't idiots in this universe, ahsoka is amused, eventual angst, qui-gon is amused, raised a sith anakin, well some of them are
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-05-31 03:03:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6452872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissShelockHolmes/pseuds/MissShelockHolmes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Obi-wan knows this a bad idea. A Sith Lord wants to work with the Jedi to take down another Sith Lord and gives the Jedi command of a powerful force user whose only skill seems to be fighting? Oh yea, no way that can go badly.</p>
<p>Also known as: Anakin gets a childhood worst than canon, Obi-wan is much too tightly laced, and they sort of fall in love on the battlefield</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

The beginning starts with an experiment. An experiment to create life, to defy all natural law, to become a god. The beginning starts with a failure.  
  
The beginning continues when Shmi Skywalker discovers she is pregnant. A pregnancy with no father, with no idea on how it happened, with a life that should not exist. The beginning starts when Shmi Skywalker holds her son for the first time.  
  
The beginning ends when Shmi is put up for sale, and Darth Plagueis buys her and her infant son. A sale which changes the course of the galaxy. The beginning starts when Plagueis thinks that maybe the experiment wasn’t a failure after all.

  


The middle begins with the infant growing up in a lab with droids as caretakers. A lonely existence only broken when a man comes to study the child and his mother can sneak in. The middle begins with pain and love.  
  
The middle continues when the apprentice betrays the master. A duel to the death that leaves Darth Plagueis grievously injured and Darth Sidious deformed. The middle continues when the boy drags the master to a surgery table and turns on the medical droids.  
  
The middle ends when the master begins to plot his revenge. A plan that makes use of the resources around him. The middle ends when the boy becomes a weapon.

  


The ending begins with the galaxy dividing and civil war breaks out. A perfect opportunity to test the weapon’s effectiveness. The end begins with the weapon going to Corusant and presenting a holo-message with a proposal for the sith and jedi to work together.  
  
The ending continues when Obi-wan Kenobi meets the weapon. A by-the-book jedi meets the overly emotional sith and they both feel the force binding them together. The end continues when Obi-wan Kenobi and the weapon become a team.  
  
The ending ends with a new beginning. A war rages on, and the team works together, even when they don’t want to. The ending doesn’t end, it starts a new beginning.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, lets begin this train wreck.


	2. Meet Your Other Half

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi-wan meet Vader, Vader meet Obi-wan.

Obi-wan thinks the Council has lost their minds. An enemy of my enemy does not always equal friend, in fact most the time it means more enemies. They cannot be actually thinking about forming an alliance with a Sith Lord. This can only end in disaster. The Jedi Knight glances over to the monster standing in the middle of the circle. The thing is taller than Obi-wan, maybe taller than Master Qui-gon, covered head to toe with all black, and has a lightsaber hanging from his belt. In his hands, he holds a small disc that contains a holo-message from a Sith Lord named Darth Plagueis. Apparently, there is a rift in the Sith Order and one of the factions wishes to ally itself with the jedi in order to defeat the other.  
Obi-wan is fairly sure that complete banthashit. Still, the Council seems to think that the offer is legitimate and they are currently sharing looks that promise an argument when their “guest” isn’t in hearing range.  
  
“A day, we need” Master Yoda breaks the silence, “Confer among ourselves, we must”  
  
“I understand,” the thing’s voice is, like the rest of it, full of power and self-confidence, “I shall return tomorrow for your answer.”  
  
And with that, the sith walks out of the room, his overly dramatic, in Obi-wan’s opinion, cape fluttering behind him.  
  
“We cannot honestly be considering this can we?” Even Piell exclaims calmly, as only a jedi can, “The Sith Order is not to be trusted”  
  
“Ah, dying on the front the Jedi are,” Master Yoda hums, “all the help, we need”  
  
“But not from the sith!”  
  
“We should meditate on this before making any decisions,” Master Windu’s holo speaks up, the Master is out on the front lines and his holo is mostly static, “I have a feeling that this might be more important than it seems”  
  
“Agree, I do,” Master Yoda calmly states as he moves down from his chair, “Dismiss until fourth hour tomorrow we shall”  
  
Obi-wan turns to leave the chamber and maybe grab a bite to eat before heading to bed. He isn’t on the Council and frankly, this isn’t his problem to deal with and probably will never be.

  


The next morning Obi-wan wakes up with a bad feeling that only worsens when he gets summoned to the Council Chambers. Apparently the Council decided to ally with the sith. Seeing as how the monstrous humanoid is standing off to the side with his arms crossed as a holo Muun talks to the Council about terms and agreements when Obi-wan is let into the chamber.  
  
“Knight Kenobi, a mission you have,” Master Yoda states and the Muun turns around, “With our new ally you shall go”  
  
Obi-wan isn’t exactly sure what to say to that. Luckily the other sith seems to be as unhappy with the arrangement as he is, “Master, I do not think this is necessary. I am more than capable of completing this mission by myself.”  
  
“Vader” the Muun glares back and the other sith, apparently named Vader, flinches, “This is not a test of either of your capabilities, but rather an experiment about how a jedi and you will work together.”  
  
Obi-wan doesn’t like the way the Sith says _experiment_ , but the Council seems to agree with the basics of the statement. There is no denying it then, he is going on a mission with a sith lord.  
  
Oh joy.  
  
“Leave today you shall,” Master Yoda smirks as if he knows something that no one else knows, Obi-wan understands now why his Master often thought of kicking the Master across the room, “At the twelfth hour, in the hanger bay you should be”  
  
Vader and Obi-wan bow, almost completely in sync, “Yes Master”

  


He’s packing his bag when Ahsoka knocks on his door. She and Master Qui-gon had left a week ago to a mission somewhere in the Mid-Rim and now it seemed they were back. He was worried that Master Qui-gon taking a padawan at his age would be a bad thing, but Ahsoka seems to be a good match.  
  
“Come in!”  
  
Ahsoka comes in talking a kilk a minute. “Did you hear? They’re saying that a Sith Lord is hanging out in the temple! There is even talk about an alliance!”  
  
He turns and looks at her, “Hello to you too, Padawan. And yes, I’ve definitely heard, seeing as how I am going on a mission with the said sith lord”  
  
“What?” Ahsoka looks shocked and a little worried, “Who else is going?”  
  
“Just us, I believe, maybe some clone troopers.”  
  
“They can’t do that!” Ahsoka exclaims, “He’ll kill you!”  
  
“I believe I can defend myself, but thank you for your faith in my abilities,” Obi-wan replies sarcastically, though somewhat warmed by Ahsoka’s protectiveness. Misguided as it may be. Grabbing his bag, Obi-wan walks out of his room and Ahsoka trails behind him.  
  
“When are you leaving?”  
  
“Now.” The walk down the hanger bay is shorter than Obi-wan would like, he’d certainly like more time away from the menace that has invaded the temple. He almost tells Ahsoka to stay behind, but if the sith are to be their allies(and isn’t that weird to say), she’ll meet them eventually. Vader stands out on the temple background, his height and the fact that everyone is walking around him like he has some kind of force field.  
  
“Ready?”  
  
“Yes,” Vader’s reply is short, and if Obi-wan isn’t sure but he thinks he hears some form of annoyance from the humanoid. He shrugs it off and gets into the shuttle that will take them to the Jedi Cruiser in orbit with Vader.  
  
As the ship leaves the atmosphere, Obi-wan thinks that he should probably have a bad feeling about this mission, but the force is silent on the matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a complete change in writing style! Hooray~ Thank you everyone that gave kudos and commented, it really means a lot. (I seriously danced around). Anyway, turns out that this fic is probably going to be fairly long. Including this chapter I have twenty three planned out now(and I'm not done yet)


	3. Our First Mission Part 1

Vader was ready for this meeting to be over with two hours ago. He looks around the holo-table that has a map of Ryloth pulled up, and fixes his gaze on Admiral. It’s his fault that the meeting has gone on as long as it has by arguing with any suggestions made by either the clones or the force users at the table. At first, Vader was pleased that the man did not blindly follow the jedi, but as time went on, Vader learned that it wasn’t intelligence that had the man questioning the jedi.  
  
It was sheer ignorance coupled with the unwillingness to learn.  
  
The man speaks again, this time arguing against the idea that a small battalion would work best in this scenario and Vader is about two seconds away from strangling the man.  
“Admiral,” the jedi begins, calmly, which Vader admits he wouldn’t be able to do, “Do you have any solutions for the problems you mentioned.”  
  
The general smiles sweetly as the Admiral glares, knowing very well that he doesn’t have any solution, “We will be happy to listen, but unless you can think of a solution, the plan will stay as is”  
  
The Admiral doesn’t speak, and his jedi partner closes the holo-map, “Well, then meeting adjourned,” he turns around, “How long until we reach Ryloth, Captain?”  
  
“Two hours, sir”  
  
“Alright. Let’s start the preparations then. Vader, we’ll need to introduce you to the men so they don’t end up shooting you.”  
  
Vader raises an eyebrow underneath the helmet, not that the jedi can see it, “After you then, Knight Kenobi”  
  
The jedi and the sith lord leave the room and begin the trek down to the hanger bay and when they reach it the clones snap to attention.  
  
“At ease, gentlemen” Kenobi says and the troops relax out of stiff attention to a more natural stance, “Meet Lord Vader, he will be working with us on this mission.”  
  
The clones start eyeing Vader with suspicion, as if he would, now that he had been introduced, start attacking them. Granted, it is a nice surprise to find the clones are not immediately trusting him, he won’t either in their shoes. Still if he was going to slaughter the ship, he’d already have done it by now.  
  
Kenobi continues on like he doesn’t notice that his men look like they are one second away from shooting someone. His Master said the jedi were unobservant, but Vader wasn’t aware it was this bad or maybe this one was just particularly bad. He would have to watch carefully to find out. The rest of the meeting goes on without a hitch and each clone gathers their equipment before going to wait by the transport ship.  
  
“I’m going to ask that you follow my lead, Vader” Kenobi says, about ten minutes before the transport is going to take off, “We can’t have two generals running one squad.”  
  
Vader agrees with the idea, and personally has no desire to lead the squad, but the nerve of Kenobi to assume that he would be better in command has Vader’s mouth curling into a sneer. Once again, not that the knight could see it. Vader thinks at this point it’s the thought that counts.  
  
“I will allow you to lead,” Vader replies and Kenobi gives a little jolt of surprise, “until you have proven yourself unfit for the position”  
  
Kenobi’s slight surprised expression changes into a glare when Vader finishes, “You are very sure I’m going to give you that opportunity.”  
  
“You are a jedi,” Vader replies as he moves towards the transport, “So, it is inevitable.”  
  
Behind him, Vader hears Kenobi huff combined with a muttering that he can’t quite make out before footsteps follow behind him. If he is this easy to tease, it will certainly be more fun to be around jedi than I expected, Vader thinks as the knight grabs the handle beside him and no more than a minute later, the transport is heading into the atmosphere where the droids are already firing at the ships.  
  
Kenobi turns to face the troopers and shouts so he can be heard over the ship and the blaster bolts, “We need to remember why we’re here, we came to aid the Twi’leks, not destroy their home. Cody.”  
  
“That means we’ll be taking it back the hard way,” the commander takes over, “minimal destruction with blasters and droid poppers only. No rockets or detonators. Check your aim, keep an eye out for the locals. Am I understood?”  
  
Vader is not sure why they didn’t cover this in the briefing earlier, but he is slightly amused at the two non-helmeted clones in the back. He looks annoyed at having to leave behind his rocket launcher and turns to his companion, “If we’re here to free the tail-heads, the lease they can do is get out of our way”  
  
Vader sort of agrees with that sentiment, but before any other words are spoken, the Jedi Master Windu comes over the holo installed in the floor. He doesn’t offer any opening line, but instead gets straight to the point.  
“We can’t risk landing the large transports until you take out those guns!”  
  
“Pull back,” Kenobi answers, “We’ll take care of them”  
  
Vader approves of this answer, if Kenobi hadn’t agreed to go forward, Vader would have gone anyway and taken out those guns himself. Those large transports had to be set down for the rest of the campaign to get started and he has no doubt that he could take them out himself if needed. Windu gives a nod before his holo flickers out and a loud explosion from behind the ship.  
  
“Who’s up for a challenge?” Kenobi taunts, “We’re not getting any reinforcements until those guns are out of commission.”  
  
The two un-helmeted clones look at each other before sliding their helmets into place. “Here we go again,” the shaved-head clone says, exasperated. Vader wonders if it is a common thing for this troop company to be faced with, as Kenobi put it, a challenge. He finds himself excited at the prospect. Maybe his Master will let him stay with this company, it’d be nice to have challenges thrown at him sometimes. The transport doors open and the 212th company hops out before running through the forest toward two large rock outcrops.  
  
It seems the Twi’lek village is set between two large rock spires with rock walls at the entrances to the village. It’s a good defensible position, which Vader would applaud if he wasn’t the one attacking it. It doesn’t take long for the droids to notice them and a rain of blaster fire comes down onto the Ghost Company. Vader moves behind a tree, farther up than most of the clones and focuses.  
  
It never was or will be easy to manipulate blaster bolts with the force, but he manages to send some away from the running troopers. He even moves one away from Kenobi, who in turn looks up at him with surprise and little bit of gratitude and almost gets hit again. Either way the general gets up to a tree almost even with Vader before he turns to speak to Cody. Vader can’t hear it due to the blaster fire, but the jedi and two clones, Vader thinks it’s the ones from earlier, move right against the wall. A few seconds pass and one side of the droids is down, and it only takes a few more after than for the other side to fall.  
  
Good, Vader thinks as they make sure the wall is secure, this is going better than expected. Now, they only need to take out those guns.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, if you haven't guessed, this is based off of the Innocents of Ryloth. I absolutely love that episode! Anyway, come talk to me on Tumblr! @darthpastel I promise I don't bite and I'd love to talk about this story or even give recs.
> 
> Next time: Our First Mission Part 2


	4. Our First Mission Part 2

Obi-wan is surprised that the campaign has gone this well. Only one casualty, no fatalities. Which he is fairly sure is due to the sith lord towering beside him. He even saved Obi-wan at one point, which Obi-wan does not like admitting to at all. It’s embarrassing enough, having to be saved, but add to that a sith lord doing the saving? Obi-wan is just glad Vos isn’t here to see it. He’d never hear the end of it. Speaking of sith lords… Obi-wan glances at the towering humanoid who is impatiently tapping his gloved fingers against his arms. Apparently, Vader is as impatient as a newly dubbed padawan. Cody and three others had gone out for recon not even thirty standard minutes ago and Vader’s short attention span is rapidly running out. Luckily, Obi-wan can see the commander coming back into the camp so he doesn’t have to deal with the annoying tapping of gloved fingers any longer. He reaches over to turn on the holo-map and comm Master Windu. Hopefully, they’ll be able to come with a working strategy for getting those guns offline. Cody salutes when he gets close enough before getting straight down to business.

“Found the guns. They’re in the courtyard here and here” Cody points towards the back part of the courtyard, “But there’s a complication. They’ve taken the locals hostage and they’re using them as shields.”

That is quite worrying, hostage situtations were always hard to handle. Obi-wan subconsciously moves a hand to stroke his beard as he thinks deeply on how to solve this particular problem. He opens his mouth when a hiss of an activating lightsaber has him reaching for his own. Vader throws his red saber towards a… _oh force_ that’s a recon droid. The small droid makes a thump when it falls from what use to be a roof and the lightsaber returns neatly to Vader’s awaiting hand.  
  
“We need to be more careful,” Vader intones, followed by the sound of a lightsaber powering down. Obi-wan feels himself nod, yes being more careful to make sure the enemy doesn’t learn of their movements would be rather useful.  
  
“Right, good work on noticing that droid,” Obi-wan awkwardly clears his throat, “Now, while the Twi’lek prisoners will make this difficult, but not impossible. I still have a good plan for taking out those guns.”  
  
“Getting the villagers out of harm’s way is our first priority.” Windu’s voice sounds tinny over the airwave, “I have faith in you, General Kenobi.”  
Obi-wan nods before turning to the commander, “Cody, we’ll go in with everything we have. Clear those hostages.” He looks towards Vader who dips his head in agreement, “Get the men ready, Commander.”  
  
The clone nods before turning and yelling out orders to his fellow soldiers. Vader shifts a little, leaning more towards the knight and says in a lower volume than usual, “I will go look for more Recon droids. We don’t need the enemy to know we’re coming.” Obi-wan glances in approval at the sith who seems to get the message and stalks off.  
  
\--  
Obi-wan moves down the hill to meet with the commander, “The men set, Cody?” and then he notices the commander’s worried expression, “What is it?”  
  
“Waxer and Boil are not responding. They never returned from scouting”  
  
“That isn’t like them” Obi-wan states as Vader moves down to join them, looming behind the general, “They may have run into trouble.”  
  
Cody apparently agrees, “Sergeant, use the high power transmitter to see if you can reach Waxer and Boil.”  
  
The sergeant salutes with a sharp, “Yes, sir!”  
  
“We should go ahead with the assault,” Vader injects, “The others can catch up, and we won’t have the surprise forever.”  
  
“Agreed,” Obi-wan turns to the Commander, “Cody, let’s get the rest of the men moving”  
  
The Ghost Company moves out. Three scouts in the front with Vader almost directly behind them, General Kenobi in the middle with the Commander and his squad, and a few clones watching the group’s six. A foreboding hiss echoes across the abandoned city and everyone tenses, looking for the source of the sound. Yelp, one of the scouters in front, sees the beasts first and fires off his blaster at the attacking gutkarrs. The beasts don’t slow down, in fact they hardly seemed phased.  
“They’re not stopping!”  
  
“Aim for their eyes!”  
  
One gutkarr pins Vader, knocking his lightsaber out of the way before attempting to bite through the tough armor. The sith lord kicks and tries to focus enough to call his weapon. The lightsaber twitches weakly on the ground.  
  
Obi-wan has ignited his lightsaber by now, and is flipping over an attacking creature with grace only a force-user can have. The knight glances around before attempting to reach out to the straving creatures in force. His eyes are closed and his hand outstretched as he gently touches the minds of the gutkarrs. The beasts sniff the air curiously before following the jedi into the makeshift trap the general is creating. When the last beast moves far enough into the alleyway Obi-wan shouts, “Shoot the bridge!”  
  
The clones do not hesitate and a rain of destroyed bridge traps the gutkarrs in the alleyway as the knight releases his hold over the beasts and jumps, dodges, rolls, flips out of the makeshift enclosure.  
  
The Commander gives Obi-wan his lightsaber back from where he dropped it and the group is about to get on their way when a rattling noise has everyone reaching for their weapons. A humanoid-hole shakes, indicating someone is inside.  
  
“Don’t shoot,” the knight orders, putting away his lightsaber and pushing Cody’s blaster down as the lid pops open revealing the occupants inside.  
Waxer pops his helmeted head out of the hole before pulling himself up into the street. Boil follows shortly after and Cody moves towards the missing soldiers.  
  
“Waxer, Boil,” the commander states sharply and the two clones salute in turn, “where have you two slacker been?”  
  
It’s Boil who sheepishly replies, “Sir, there is an explanation.”  
  
“We got sidetracked,” Waxer looks down towards Boil’s legs and _oh_.  
  
“I think I see what sidetracked you,” Obi-wan says amused and even though no one can hear it, Vader lets out a little huff of laughter. Obi-wan kneels before the little Twi’lek and gives a gentle, “Hello, little one”  
  
The girl gasps and moves further behind Boil’s leg. “She brought us here through the tunnels.” Waxer defends, “Knows her way around them pretty good, sir”  
  
Obi-wan looks at the tiny Twi’lek and notices what she’s looking at with fear in her eyes. He give a gentle nudge at Vader, hinting that he should move out of sight. The sith lord responses with an aggressive sign of acknowledgement that has Obi-wan’s head reeling before moving out of the Twi’lek’s line of sight, “Loonala kwee jannwelo?”  
  
The girl responses, her eyes bright at the idea that her new defender speaks in words she understands, “Ooh yana-yana. Wah nerra. Kumee nerra.” She tugs at Boil’s gun excitedly and the jedi feels a new plan forming.  
  
“The girl can lead us through the tunnels to the prisoners.” Obi-wan translates, “Cody, we’re going to need a diversion.”  
  
“I can take care of that,” Vader states, moving a little closer and the smallest new member of the squad goes back to gripping Boil’s leg.  
  
“Teksa kairn de,” the general reassures and the twi’lek loosens her grip on Boil’s leg but still eyes the sith lord distrustfully. Obi-wan replies, “That sounds good. We’ll split into two groups.” The knight rises, “You five with me. Cody, Vader, you’ll be the distraction. Let’s get going.”  
\--  
The tunnels are confusing and Obi-wan wonders how long the youngling spent down here to learn them so well. Their exit comes out behind a group of cages, where he supposes they kept the gutkarrs until they were ready to release them, with two droids standing guard and a third cleaning the inside of the cage. He slices through the two standing guard quickly and the final one remaining looks up at him. Obi-wan feels that impishness from his padawan and initiate days rear its head and he uses the force to lock the droid in the cage, listening to it whine with a slight smile.  
  
“Bin-bin-kooneea,” the youngling points forward and the general turns towards the two clones following him.  
  
“I’ll take care of this. You keep her here.” He states as he passes the little guide to Boil before stealthily walking up the stairs. Boil sets the Twi’lek girl down as the general motions them over, he can see Vader and Cody readying the attack. A quick motion of hands catches the others on the opposite side of the courtyard’s attention and the attack begins.  
  
The squad watching the hostages is the first to go as the jedi general slices through them with ease. “Wa-janeel. Wa-janeel” he orders to the prisoners and begins to lead them to the safety of the tunnels.  
The battle moves quickly after that. Vader blocking shots from the tank, Obi-wan using the Serperatist’s own guns against them, and the clone troopers and their deadly accuracy bring droids down by the dozen. The biggest help comes from the former hostages when they move to help their rescuers and destroy the droid general by viciously tearing it apart.  
  
Vader is impressed, and though he’ll never admit it, Obi-wan is slightly impressed too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Everyone who commented and gave kudos really encouraged this.  
> Anyway up next time: A Wild Qui-gon appears
> 
> Also, does anyone have any better titiles for this story? Weapon isn't working for me  
> ** Update about the title**  
> The title has changed to a lovely suggestion from an equally lovely commenter and now is now as Enemy of My Enemy.


	5. A Wild Qui-gon Appears

Qui-gon Jinn, master of the Jedi Order, teacher, and the one most knowledgeable in the living force, is worried about his former padawan. Ahsoka informed him as soon as Obi-wan left that the council had assigned him to work with their new ally, and honestly, Qui-gon is a little worried for Obi-wan’s safety. Not that Obi-wan couldn’t take care of himself, Qui-gon is well aware of his former apprentice’s talents, still…  
  
The jedi master stops that line of thought, it wouldn’t do to work himself up over nothing. He glances around the hanger, he’ll meet this new ally soon enough. The 501st and the 212th battalions are being redeployed together to another system as soon as the 212th finishes their mission on Ryloth, which means they’ll be traveling on the same ship for about a standard week. This gives Qui-gon plenty of time to assess this sith apprentice. The low buzz of a transport ship followed by the soothing presence of Obi-wan’s Force signature flows into the ship’s hanger. It lands and Qui-gon walks up as the sliding door opens, revealing his surprisingly unruffled former apprentice.  
  
“Master Qui-gon!” Obi-wan greets joyfully, a smile spreading across his face. Qui-gon scans the knight for injuries, subduing a sigh of relief when he finds none. His former-apprentice seems to be scanning Qui-gon with a critical eye as well.  
  
“Hello, Obi-wan” Qui-gon returns, “I see you’ve come away from a mission in better shape than usual”  
  
“I always return from my missions in a wonderful state of health.”  
  
“I feel that your sense of wonderful state of health does not match anyone else’s.” Qui-gon deadpans as the two begin to walk out of the hanger, “Ahsoka has informed me that you’ve gained a new companion. You’ve seem to have lost him, however.”  
  
Obi-wan raises an eyebrow at his wording, “He is simply still on the planet. I suspect he’ll be up on the next transport.”  
  
“What do you think of him?” Qui-gon looks over to his former-student, whose brows are drawn up in concentration and a hand absently moving up to stroke his beard, a habit gained from watching his Master do the same.  
  
“He’s..” Obi-wan hesitates, attempting to gather his thoughts, “competent”  
  
This time, Qui-gon’s eyebrows raise and he a sardonic look towards his sheepish apprentice who certainly knows his answer was a cop out, “From what I’ve seen, his mastery of the force is excellent, as for his personality? I can tell you he doesn’t think highly of jedi but he is willing to obey orders.”  
  
“That is surprising,” the jedi master frowns, “All the other encounters with the sith have shown them generally unwilling to follow someone else.”  
  
“Well, it wasn’t unconditional obedience. He said that he would allow me to lead until I ‘proved myself unfit for command’” Obi-wan grins, “said it was ‘inevitable’”  
  
Qui-gon lets out a little laugh, and presses the button on the side of the doorway to bridge. “Well, that is certainly more like the stories.”  
  
The younger man nods, and enters into the bridge to give his mission report to the Council, his amused Master walking behind him.  
  
\--  
  
When he meets Vader two days later, Qui-gon Jinn is fascinated. Physically all he can tell is the vaguely humanoid shape, mentally his shields are drawn up tight, but the force…  
  
It’s one of the most beautiful sights in the whole galaxy. Swirling, pulsing, caressing, bright loud colors mixed with calming hues. If it had a face or arms, Qui-gon suspects it would be cradling, cooing, comforting. It reminds him of every loving parent dropping their child off to the temple, praying for a better life than one they can provide.  
  
It’s also one of the most deadly sights in the whole galaxy. Agitated, whipping, screaming, blood red mixed with poisonous yellow. If it had a face or arms, Qui-gon suspects it would be yelling, hitting, crazed. It reminds him of every abusive home they find a force-sensitive child in before taking them to the temple for a better life.  
  
Its balance. Chaos yet harmony, emotion yet peace, ignorance yet knowledge, passion yet serenity. It the epitome of the living force and all that entails. And _oh_..  
  
Qui-gon wonders how old the sith lord is, if they are connected to the reason Qui-gon woke up twenty years ago with the force screaming with rage and pain in his ears. Why suddenly the way the force worked with his padawan changed from fairly standard to comforting like it was fighting off some inherit sadness after a trip to Tatoonie eleven years ago. Why it started doing the same to now Senator but then Queen Amidala. It wouldn’t surprise him. Absently, Qui-gon wonders how long he’s been staring.  
“Master?” Ahsoka asks bringing him out of his thoughts as she curiously follows his eyes towards the dark imposing figure, “Something wrong?”  
  
“No,” he looks back to his current padawan, giving a slight smile to reassure her, “Nothing’s wrong.”  
  
Ahsoka doesn’t look convinced, but seems content enough to drop the subject, “So, where are we going now?”  
  
“Geonosis,” Qui-gon replies, “Apparently, they’ve started up a new droid factory there.”  
  
“Didn’t we already take Geonosis?”  
  
“We did, but we underestimated the native’s loyalty to Count Dooku,” Qui-gon replies, slightly proud of himself for not tripping over his former Master’s name, “We’ll learn more when we have our briefing.”  
  
Ahsoka grins up at her teacher, “I guess that means you’ll have time to teach me some Jar’kai?”  
  
Why Ahsoka has latched on to the two-bladed style of lightsaber combat, Qui-gon doesn’t know, but it certainly can’t hurt to learn, “I think, padawan, I have enough time to teach you a little then you can work on your mediation techniques.”  
  
His apprentice makes a face as Qui-gon guides her out of the room, sparing one last glance at the sith lord behind him. He’ll figure out where this beacon of the force fits in later, right now, he has a padawan to keep alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huarry for Qui-gon! He might have more to say about them later, but for now I just wanted to introduce him into the story and give a more mystical perspective on Vader's force signature/self thing.
> 
> May the Fourth be with you!
> 
> Up next time: Our Second Mission: Part 1.


	6. Our Second Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We go to Geonosis, Vader meets some clones and Obi-wan is surprised at how worried he gets.

Kenobi, Vader muses, does not want to be anywhere near Geonosis and well, Vader wouldn’t be surprised if he started hissing like his Master’s old cat, the knight was certainly bristling like it. It was all quite amusing and Vader carefully makes sure that his amusement isn’t making its way past his shields. Somehow, Vader thinks, it might cause issues if the jedi finds out that he’s being compared to a mangy old cat that terrorizes mouse droids.  
  
“I can’t believe we’re heading back to Geonosis,” Kenobi laments, or as close to it as a jedi can get without breaking their ‘serene’ façade.  
  
“Were you part of the initial battle?”  
  
“Unfortunately, in fact, from a certain point of view, I was the first jedi on the ground”  
  
“What about from other points of view?”  
  
“Well, from a different perspective, I ended up getting caught for espionage, received a farce of a trial, chained to a pole and attacked by humongous monsters, which required being rescued from”  
  
That would explain why Kenobi was unwilling to go back, his Master told him that many jedi died at that battle. Vader finds himself strangely grateful that the man beside him was not one of them. It’s an odd feeling, but not necessarily a bad one.  
  
“That sounds…entertaining”  
  
“It was..” the knight deadpans, “ for the Geonisians. Enough of that, we shouldn’t keep the Outer Rim Command waiting”  
  
\--  
  
“You are aware that this is going to end horribly correct?” The sith lord asks, an unseen eyebrow high on his forehead as they leave the meeting. The knight glares before sighing.  
  
“I’m aware, but it’s the best plan we’ve got.” He pauses for a moment, “I suppose you’re happy to be given your own command”  
  
“Not especially.” If given a choice, he wouldn’t be in command at all. No command training, no leading experience, and no desire to be responsible for other people’s lives. Besides, those men deserve someone who cares whether they live or die and Vader knows that is definitely not him. Sith do not care for their underlings, they are to be used. He’d learnt that early on in training.  
  
“Oh? It didn’t seem that way before Ryloth.”  
  
“Accepting command when the other commander has been proven unfit is different.”  
  
“Perhaps,” Kenobi hums as they turn into the hanger bay, apparently content to drop the subject, “See you at the landing zone. Try not to be late”  
  
Vader tilts his head, “I’ll be sure to wait for you to finally arrive.”  
  
The knight chuckles before waving as he walks towards his troops and Vader goes to meet his new troops. One clone sees him and sharply elbows his brother in the stomach and by the time Vader is in speaking range, they’re standing at attention.  
  
“At ease,” he states, “I’m Darth Vader, apparently your new General.” The clones give each other a look, communicating silently between them. He studied their faces, hoping for some clue as to what they were thinking but the lack of humans in his childhood left him without any reference for the slight nuances of facial expressions.  
  
The sith lord clears his throat as he pulls out his holo-map and zooms into the landing zone. “We are meeting the other troops here.”  
  
The clones nod. Vader continues, relaxing into the routine of briefings. When they finish, the clones disperse, except for one who strides boldly beside Vader.  
  
“Sir, whats the difference between fighting with a sith lord vs a jedi?”  
  
The sith apprentice blinks, confused. “The sith use what is called the dark side, and the jedi use the light”  
  
“I know that, but what is the difference in fighting styles and such?” The clone looks honestly curious, and the others, he notices, are straining their ears to listen.  
  
“I’m not sure,” he replies. The clone looks unimpressed. “But lightsaber combat, as far as I can tell, is shared by both jedi and sith in styles at least.”  
  
“Okay, we can work with that then,” the clone nods before realizing something, “I’m CT-5555 or Fives for short. That’s Echo over there. Hevy beside him and Droidbait and Cutup are over there”  
  
Fives points to each one respectively, “I know a few more, but not everyone…”  
  
“Its fine, I’ll find out myself,” Vader cuts him off, more than slightly confused at the clone’s boldness. And he does, up until they all load into ships and leave the Star Destroyer.  
  
\--  
  
The mission doesn’t have the best start. Most of their ships were shot down and as far as he can tell, only Vader’s team made it to the landing zone at all.  
  
“Sir, are you sure this is the shortest way to the landing zone?” Commander Cody cautions.  
  
“No, Commander, I’m not” Obi-wan calmly replies, holding his wounded side carefully, “All I can do at this point is trust my instincts”  
  
He’s fairly sure Cody makes a face under his helmet. Not that Obi-wan blames him. He use to make that exact face when Qui-gon told him the same thing.  
  
He hopes his old Master is ok.  
  
The cavern they enter in is large, dark, and more than likely inhabited. The walls are riddled with holes, each the size of an adult Geonosian. His men move cautiously, blasters at the ready, shoulders tight with tension and underneath their helmets their eyes dart around, looking for that unseen threat.  
  
“ARGgg” One of the troops shouts as the native bug-like people dart out and grip him by the shoulders. Immediately, the sound of blaster fire echoes in the cave.  
  
“Keep moving,” the knight shouts, moving his hand from his side to grip his blade better. His breathes coming out as pants as they slowly move deeper in the tunnel. Cody moves closer to his side, but the commander has always been rather protective of any jedi in his charge.  
  
“Get out the flamethrowers!” he orders as they get close to the exit, a dozen or so bugs fliting about between. The heat filled the cavern as the flames scorched the remaining Geonosians, screaming as they fell out of the air. The knight exits and looks down, seeing the familiar white and blue armor of the 501st and the even more familiar glow of a green lightsaber.  
  
It seems his old Master is, to some degree, okay. The 501st stops and Obi-wan almost lets out a laugh when he hears Master Qui-gon yell, “It seems you took a detour, my former padawan!”  
  
“It seems to be a day for it!” he yells back while looking for a way down, “Perhaps we should stick together while making our way towards the landing site!”  
  
He sees Qui-gon nod and the 212th Attack Battalion starts to repel down. Maybe this mission won’t go so bad after all.  
  
\--  
  
Obi-wan feels his heart stop at the landing zone. The ships are a wreck, clones lay in various states of death, and a dark figure is leaning against a group of crates near the center with five clones defensively surrounding him.  
  
Vader.  
  
The sith apprentice is resting against the crates, breathing heavy, his helmet broken, and one arm clutching the bleeding stump of the other.  
  
He looks awful and Obi-wan finds himself striding over quicker than a jedi should to the hunched over figure. It’s surprising, the emotion boiling over in his chest is unbecoming of a jedi and he hasn’t had to deal with that in years. It’s a little worrying but he clears his mind as Vader lifts his exposed yellow eye towards him.  
  
“Took you long enough,” the sith rasps, his vocoder and natural voice layering upon one another to produce an uncanny sound.  
  
“Took a detour,” Obi-wan replies, trying for light and casual but probably sounding more concerned than he should, “Your arm”  
  
“It’s bleeding too much,” Vader says, looking down at the stump, “I need you to cauterize it”  
  
“What? No!” Qui-gon is now standing patiently behind him with Ahsoka looking wide eyed at the downed sith.  
  
“We don’t have the bacta needed or the time!” Vader snarls back, “I can’t do it by myself. I’m shaking too much”  
  
He does have a point, that doesn’t mean Obi-wan is thrilled at this idea of field medicine. The idea of using a lightsaber to cauterize the wound on his…friend is disturbing.  
  
“Will you allow me to do it?” his old Master asks and the kneeling ginger is about to argue against it when his old Master sends the ‘now is not the time to argue, padawan’ look his way so he swallows the words in his throat.  
  
Vader considers it, peering closely at the long-haired jedi before giving a short nod. Qui-gon ignites his saber while Obi-wan moves over to the side.  
  
“Ready?” Qui-gon asks gently and Vader scrunches his eyes closed and gives another quick nod. The lightsaber brushes against the exposed skin, sending the smell of burnt flesh in the air. Qui-gon rises, “Done”  
  
“Thank you,” his voice is steady, but he’s breathing a little harsher than before. The sith’s pain tolerance is rather impressive, Obi-wan notes.  
  
“You’re welcome,” Qui-gon replies, “I have an idea for what we can do next”  
  
The jedi master pulls out a holo-map, “Ahsoka and I can take a small group through the shields, there we’ll disable these targeting systems so they can’t target the tanks, Obi-wan can bring the rest of the troops after that”  
  
The group nods and Qui-gon turns, “Captain Rex, gather a small squad and leave the rest with Commander Cody please”  
  
“Yes sir!” and the Captain rushes off.  
  
“Commander, find someplace with good cover to hide the injured,” Obi-wan orders, “We leave in ten”  
  
The clone runs off and Obi-wan finds himself kneeling by the sith again. His breathing has evened out a little, but his eyes are still furrowed with pain.  
  
“You gonna be ok?” the knight whispers, as if afraid that talking too loud could hurt Vader’s health.  
  
“I’ll be better once you’ve taken that ray shielding down,” Vader’s eye cracks open, “Just get the mission done”  
  
Obi-wan nods and stands up to do just that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long time, no excuses besides the fact I really didn't want to write some of this. It needed to be in there but whatever. 
> 
> Next time: Face to Face


	7. Face to Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi-wan finally sees Vader's face and deals with the Outer Rim Command.

Obi-wan watches as some medical troops move Vader onto a stretcher, his wounds a little more serious than before due to the amount of blood lost and the possible head injuries from the cracked mask. He’s been informed that the sith should be okay. ;

 

That doesn’t stop him from worrying, no matter how un-jedi-like that seemed to be. It was a little shameful, the amount of worrying and his inability to release it to the force, for a jedi knight. He tries to focus on the force, tries to let its peace calm him. The force doesn’t seem to be cooperating, and if Obi-wan didn’t know better, the force would feel a little more frantic than usual. He does know better, however, so he knows he must be projecting his own anxieties onto it.

 

There is no emotion, there is peace after all.

 

Obi-wan draws in a breathe as they take off, his stomach lurching as it does every time a ship leaves the firm ground its resting on. It used to be a lot worse, Qui-gon had to start giving him motion sickness pills every mission before he got it under control. It never went away fully, but it was manageable now.

 

Thankfully, the ride to the ship is a short one. The medical team moves out with Vader first, and slowly Obi-wan finds himself following them. He won’t be able to enter the operating room, of course, but he finds sitting outside the ward helps calm his nerves a little.

 

He waits a long time.

 

Rather, he waits for what seems to be a long time before a medical droid pops out of the ward.

 

“Are you waiting on someone?” T3-I1, according to their name tag, asks.

 

“Vader,” the knight hurriedly replies, “He’s okay isn’t he?”

 

“Lord Vader is asleep at the moment, but yes, it looks like he will be making a full recovery” the droid looks at him for a moment, “You can go in and see him if he has granted you permission”

 

“Thanks,” he says before forcing himself to slowly walk back to the patient beds. He finds Vader’s bed without much trouble and pulls the curtain aside to go in before stopping in his tracks.

 

Vader doesn’t have on a helmet. He doesn’t have any armor on at all, actually. Instead he’s dressed in the regular medical gown and bacta patches. He almost turns back, knowing that the sith wouldn’t look too kindly on him intruding when he was vulnerable but he can’t stop staring.

 

Never in a million years, would Obi-wan guess that a monstrous sith lord would look like someone he used to pick up for a one-night stand after a mission when he was first knighted.

 

The sith is young and fairly handsome with his strong jawline, cleft chin, and his high cheekbones. Obi-wan’s eyes move towards the top of the sith’s head, jaw falling slightly open in surprise.  The sith lord has curls. Dark golden blond curls. It’s a wonder Obi-wan didn’t notice it back down on Geonosis, but he guesses that they might have been caked down with dirt and blood. They’re laying wild now, still slightly damp from the slight wash the medical droids would have given them. It’s rather adorable, actually and of all the hairstyles, not something he excepted out of a sith.

 

Not that anything about the sith’s appearance is something he would ever expect. One doesn’t generally picture sith lord’s as particularly handsome or so young. Especially if that sentient is a jedi and grew up hearing stories about dangerous sith lord and the evil dark-side.

 

He moves towards the bed, scanning up and down for more obvious injuries while attempting to ignore his previous thought. Not finding many, Obi-wan feels the knot that had been tying up his chest loosen. One bacta patch on the face, near the eye, another on the sith’s remaining arm, close to the wrist, and a third resting against his collar bone. The biggest one though is wrapped tightly around the stump of the sith’s right arm. A pang of sympathy runs through him, losing your saber arm… He can’t imagine how horrible he’d feel.

 

His comm-link buzzes, throwing Obi-wan out of his surprised stupor. He dashes out, hoping to not wake the sleeping patients.

 

“Kenobi here” he answers when he’s sure he’s out of earshot of any patients. Master Windu’s form comes into view. Ah, apparently he needs to report in for a debriefing of some sort. That’s the only reason for someone from the Council to call him. He goes for pleasantries anyway, “Master Windu, what can I do for you?”

 

“Welcome back, Knight Kenobi,” Windu replies, apparently willing to indulgence in the same pleasantries, “We need you to give a report about the situation on Geonosis.”

 

“Ah,” Not too much indulgence though, they are jedi after all. Obi-wan gives a polite smile before continuing, “Of course Master, when?”

 

“Immediately.”

 

“I see..” That was awfully soon. He suppresses the urge to look at the med-bay doors, instead answering with, “I shall be up there momentarily”

 

“We await your arrival.” Windu says before terminating the call. The knight turns off his own comm while walking towards the same room they had their briefing earlier.

 

It shouldn’t be a too bad of briefing, they were victorious on Geonosis after all. Getting the ray shield down was a huge accomplishment and allowed for their armies to move forward in the invasion.

 

 _But at what cost?_ his mind supplies with a voice sounding eerily like his old Master. And, Obi-wan did have to concede, the cost was immense. 15 casualties from his company alone, Vader’s had five standing soldiers left when they arrived, Qui-gon lost at least six. One General without his saber-arm.

 

He has to tell them about that. He has to tell them about the blood spilt to get down a stupid ray shield because they were spread too thin to keep the peace. He sighs, all jedi had missions where the death toll was higher than the reward, they were rare, of course, but they did happen. But since the war started, it seemed like all the missions turned into the missions every jedi had nightmares about.

 

How should he word this report then? Emphasize the heavy losses or the eventual victory? The information was the same, but maybe it would encourage the Chancellor for more diplomatic solutions if he emphasized the losses. Or it would demoralize the civilians if the mission became public. Maybe he shouldn’t emphasize anything, just give the facts and let the Council take over from there. That was the safest option.

 

Mind still not made up, Obi-wan enters the briefing room where the Outer Rim Command is waiting. Master Yoda, Master Windu, and Master Luminara on the left, Chancellor Valorum with his assistant in the middle, and the Sith Master on the right. He bows towards the holos.

 

“Masters, Chancellor, Lord..” Obi-wan says, “I’m afraid I never caught your name Master Sith”

 

“Quite alright child,” the Muun’s voice is sickly sweet, like his politeness is a thin veil hiding the venom within, “My name is Darth Plagueis.” The sith smiles and Obi-wan feels uneasy at the sight.

 

“A report, we need” Master Yoda hums, “Tell us, you will about this mission”

 

“Yes, Master,” Obi-wan replies, “Our mission was a success though we did suffer heavy losses in all squads. The Genosians were more than prepared for our assault.”

 

“Do you have a count, Knight Kenobi?” Chancellor Valorum says, and from what Obi-wan can tell, he seems already upset at the idea of the lives lost.

 

“I have a rough estimate, the 501st lost at least six plus two more minor injuries, my squad 15 casualties with three minor injuries.” He takes a deep breathe, “Lord Vader’s squad was hit the hardest. When we got to the landing ground, only five clones were still able to fight though I’m not sure of the final death toll, as I understand it was more injuries than death. Lord Vader also sustained serious injury”

 

Darth Plagueis raises his species equivalent of an eyebrow, “Injured? In what way?”

 

“Mostly cuts and bruises, but there is evidence of head trauma and he also lost his saber arm. He is asleep at the moment, but the medical droids assured me he will be making a full recovery.”

 

Darth Plagueis’s expression turns angry for a moment before smoothing back to the polite mask, “I see, would you be so kind, Knight Kenobi, and inform Lord Vader I wish to speak to him when he wakes up?”

 

“Of course,” Obi-wan says, “I’m afraid that’s all the information I have at the moment. I can go get the official casualty report if needed. It should be near finished by now”

 

“Unnessacary, that is. All the information, we need, we have.” Master Yoda says, “Rest, you should Obi-wan. Join you soon, Master Luminara will”

 

“Yes Master,” he bows again, “May the Force be with you”

 

“May the Force be with you,” Master Windu returns before the holos blink out of existence, leaving Obi-wan alone in the briefing room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case your curious [ Here's what I'm picturing Anakin looking like right now.](http://whinyluke.tumblr.com/post/142649538149) with a bit blonder hair though.
> 
> Up next time: Our Second Mission Continues


	8. Our Second Mission Continued

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys deal with new clothes, an angry sith, a foolish jedi master, and zombies.

He doesn’t want to open his eyes. Opening his eyes means waking up. Waking up means moving and judging by the way his body aches while laying still, moving means pain.

 

He opens his eyes anyway, blinking the wholly oddly white world into focus. The sith starts to slowly scan the makeshift room, noting sleepily that he should be able to see more than he can at the moment. Ignoring the flare of pain, he rolls his head towards the area he can’t see and finds a familiar face in all white armor looking down at a data-padd half asleep.

 

“Fives?” he croaks causing the clone to jerk in surprise.

 

“Sir!” Fives softly exclaims, relief lacing his voice, “Good to see you awake”

 

“Where…”

 

“Back onboard the _Resolute_ , sir,” the clones replies, “Gave us quite the scare, General”

 

Vader’s face scrunches up, what had he done to scare them? He didn’t threaten, maim, kill any of them as far as he can remember. They shouldn’t be scared.

 

“I’ll let the other boys know you’ll be okay,” Fives says, smiling before clarifying, “That’ll put most of the fears at rest”

 

Oh. They weren’t scared of him, they were scared for him. Which didn’t make much more sense, but it was still better than the alternative. His head hurt too much to think on it much further.

 

“I’m gonna go get a med-droid,” the clone adds before moving towards one of the oddly white curtains, “Be right back”

 

He stares at where the lieutenant left, trying to figure out why the curtains seemed different than before and almost hits himself for not realizing it sooner because the lack of a red-tint covering everything should be a big enough clue. He’s not wearing his helmet. In fact, now that he looks down at himself, he doesn’t seem to be wearing any armor at all. Not good at all, he thought as he automatically moved his hand to cover his exposed face before jerking back in surprise at an unfamiliar sensation.

 

Oh right, he’d lost that hand, which was equally not good. His Master was probably angry. No, his Master was definitely angry. He clenches his prosthetic, judging the delicate circuitry’s depth of sensation. Not too bad for a temporary one, but Vader knows he can design a better, more permanent one with ease. Perhaps, he’ll be able to do so before his Master finds out about the injury, it might appease him somewhat. That’s rather wishful thinking on his part though. He starts going over various designs in his mind, artificial hand twitching for a stylus to draw with.

 

“It is fortunate that you are awake,” the med-droid says as they walk in, “How are you feeling?”

 

“Disoriented,” the sith replies honestly. He’s learned over the years that the blunter you are with med-droids, they quicker they’ll let you leave their care. The droid marks down something on a data-padd. Vader can see Fives lingering near the opening of the curtain as the clone tries not to pry on his superior’s check-up.

 

“Any pain from your arm?” They ask while moving to take his pulse and blood pressure.

 

“Unless I’m on some strong stim-packs, no”

 

If the droid had moveable facial features, Vader guesses it would look pleased, “Excellent, you should be clear for duty by the next rotation. I want to watch that head injury before I let you go”

 

“Alright,” Vader agrees easily, settling down back into the pillows. He’ll happily wait another day before talking to his Master.

 

\--

The Sith master looks at his kneeling apprentice with a deliberately cool gaze. He was disappointed, but not surprised that the child had made a mistake. Apprentices were known for that after all and lab-grown ones were apparently not exceptions.

 

“Is this what you hoped to accomplish, creation,” Darth Plagueis says while making a sweeping gesture towards his apprentice’s artificial arms, “Did you mean to be so careless with my gifts?”

 

The apprentice’s head jolts up, his eyes wide as he attempts to placate his Master, “No, Master! I.. it won’t happen again I promise!”

 

“No, I doubt it will,” the Master’s face turns to kind façade, filled with fake concern for the trembling being before him, “Perhaps it was too soon for you to leave the labs”

Plagueis hides a smirk at the spike of panic in the force from their master-apprentice bond before continuing, “Maybe I should have you come back for more training…”

 

“Give me another chance to prove myself to you Master, before you call me back” Vader begs from his kneeling position as his heart hammers in throat at the idea of being back in the lab.

 

“It isn’t a matter of being called back, my little creation” the Muun clarifies, “It’s a matter of if you will be returning to the field afterwards”

 

The apprentice looks at the holo image of his Master with a confused look, “Master?”

 

“That’s only a temporary prosthetic, correct?”

 

The creation gives a hesitant nod.

 

“Your permanent one will be installed under my watch, and there is the matter of your punishment,” Plagueis says nonchantly, as if those words were painless and nice as a sunny day, “But first, you will help the jedi clean up part of this mess you’ve made.”

 

Vader nods, “I will not let you down Master”

 

“See that you don’t, little Vader” The sith master returns cruelly before cutting off the holo-call, childishly pleased to get the last word in.

 

\--

 

Obi-wan looks up in surprise at the person shuffling into the room, “I didn’t expect to see you up and about so soon after losing your arm”

 

“They gave me a prosthetic, nothing much else they can do” the sith shrugs, looking vaguely uncomfortable, “Everything else was fairly minor compared to that”

 

“Nevertheless, I’m glad to see that you’re alright” the knight smiles in reply, before his face turns into a confused frown, “What happened to your armor?”

 

To the knight’s great surprise, Vader blushes and looks down to the floor, “The armor.. when the droids cut it off, they weren’t very concerned with fixability” He makes a gesture towards his borrowed jedi-robes, “Master Jinn was kind enough to lend me the robes”

 

Obi-wan looks closer and he does recognize a few items, but he wasn’t aware that his old Master’s had that much dark clothing, “I like that you went with the dark colors, it suits you”

 

Vader chuckles, “I didn’t choose them, Master Jinn just handed them to me, but thanks, I’m rather fond of darker colors myself, they’re usually warmer”

 

Huh, Qui-gon put more thought into than Obi-wan originally thought, also warmer? They were on a desolate wasteland were the sun scorched across the planet, what did he need to be warmer for? Maybe Vader was from a warm world, that’d explain the need for warmer clothes, most other planets would feel rather cold to him.

 

“Anyway, where are we on the clean up?” Vader interrupts Obi-wan’s thoughts and the older man automatically pulls up a map of the world.

 

“Master Luminara just comm-ed, she has a lead on Poggle and went to track him down”

 

“In this weather?” Vader asks surprised, gesturing towards the horrible sandstorm outside, “Isn’t going out in a desert during a storm practically suicide?”

 

“On some planets I think it is,” Obi-wan muses, “But we do have teams scouring the desert, even if she does get lost, she’ll probably be fine”

 

Vader doesn’t look particularly impressed and to be fair, Obi-wan’s not crazy about Luminara’s idea either. For a Jedi Master, it was extremely impulsive and reckless of her, especially when she had a Padawan counting on her guidance. The two continue making small talk, bouncing ideas where the enemy commander could be when Obi-wan’s comm beeps.

 

“Master Luminara,” Obi-wan answers as Vader moves closer to hear the extremely poor quality comm signal. Master Luminara flashes in and out as she says a garbled message, but the gist is fairly clear.

“Poggle...trail…temple…after,”

 

Vader looks towards the sandswept jedi with a frown before attempting to send a message himself, “Stay in the entrance of the temple, Knight Kenobi and I will join you after the sandstorm passes”

 

Obi-wan nods, “Please don’t go after him without some backup, Master”

 

Luminara looks annoyed, which shows their message got through enough for her to be displeased. She opens her mouth to speak before the holo-call abruptly ends. The knight taps on the side of the device in frustration, annoyed frown obvious despite the beard.

 

“You think she’ll go without back-up?” Vader asks after a moment of Obi-wan fiddling with the comm.

 

“Maybe, I’m afraid I’m not too close with Master Luminara,” Obi-wan replies, “so I don’t know how she’s going to react”

 

Vader gives a curt nod before striding towards the exit, “Better safe than sorry, we should try to make our way to the temple as well before she does something rash.”

 

\--

They make it to the temple mostly in one piece. Obi-wan has sand in the weirdest places but that doesn’t count as an injury, no matter how annoying it is. He tries to shake some of the tiny grains out of his sleeve while scanning around the dark dilapidated temple.

At one point, the temple was probably the height of Geonosian architecture but after what looks like centuries of decay, it’s once impressive features have been worn down to unrecognizability. It’s a mess, rubble piles lay scattered across the mostly cracked floor, the ceiling has more holes than a ceiling should, statues have lost various body parts, and a rather thick layer of sand covers most of the entranceway.

 

“Lovely place,” he comments dryly as they move a little farther inside.

 

“Reminds me of home,” Vader murmurs almost too low to hear, yellow eyes glowing eerily in the dark, before adding in a louder voice, “Spread out, see if you can find anything”

 

The men move towards various nooks, each turning on the flashlight on their helmet as they do. It doesn’t take long before Crys calls out, “Over here!”

 

“Buzz’s dead”

 

Obi-wan frowns down at the corpse, eyes tracing the odd wounds. “There was a struggle.” He points towards the various blaster marks, “The question is, where is Master Luminara?”

 

“Wherever she is,” Vader kneels down to the floor and picks up a lightsaber, “I don’t think she has her lightsaber, unless this isn’t hers”

 

He hands it over to Obi-wan, “No, this is hers alright. This isn’t a good sign”

 

“Poggle didn’t do this,” Vader says with certainty before pointing to above an archway, “But maybe that did”

 

That referring to whatever creature an oddly lit statue is portraying.

 

“That’s one ugly bug,” Cody comments and Vader hums in agreement before adding, “I haven’t seen one that looks like that before”

 

“I don’t think anyone has,” Obi-wan remarks, various puzzle pieces clicking together in his head, “It could be the Geonosian queen”

 

Vader makes a face, “The bugs have a queen?” He looks vaguely disgusted at the idea, and Obi-wan understands the feeling.

 

“Hmm, rumored,” the knight replies, “But we haven’t found any proof of her existence”

 

“Until now” Vader adds, eyeing Obi-wan skeptically as he moves towards the open arch way, “Don’t tell me we have to go down there”

 

“We don’t have to go down there,” Obi-wan cheekily replies, grinning at the slight pout on the sith’s face. He pulls out his lightsaber, “Come on then”

 

“This isn’t going to go well,” Vader complains, but still follows dutifully into the catacombs with a quietly agreeing squad of clones behind him.

 

\--

 

They slowly make their way deeper with the faint purplish combined glow of two lightsabers guiding the way. Vader has taken the lead, apparently use to navigating labyrinths in the dark. Obi-wan is not sure if that particular talent is a particular sith trick or if Vader often makes his way through catacombs beneath a planet’s surface. It would probably be impolite to ask.

 

The group practically jumps out of their skin when Cody’s wrist topographer begins an annoying set of beeps.

“This leads to a dead end” The clone explains, before turning towards a smaller tunnel, “This one goes down the furthest. Sir, I’d say that’s our best bet”

 

“I’ll go first,” the knight moves into the small tunnel, suppressing a grin at Vader’s indignant muttering.

 

It’s a short tunnel, which Obi-wan is ever grateful for because any more time walking hunched over like that would have hurt something. Behind him, Vader is also apparently grateful and lets out a little sigh of relief before igniting his lightsaber again. It’s interesting, the knight notes, how expressive the sith lord is without his mask. He filters nothing, letting every emotion flirt across his facial expression and body language. For someone raised as a jedi, whose core beliefs preach about controlling your emotions, it’s fascinating to see another force user so unguarded.

 

He pushes his fascination to the back of his mind. He’ll mediate on that later, once Master Luminara is found. A quiet beep goes off by his wrist and he answers the comm-call as quick as he can.

 

“If you are following me, you must leave this place. I repeat fall ba—“ Luminara orders before she gets cut off suddenly.

 

“She must be close by. Come on!” The group breaks out into a jog, moving quickly until a quiet clicking sound moves closer towards them. Obi-wan moves his saber in front of him when Cody’s light shines on four Geonosians.

 

They don’t look like normal Geonosians. Their eyes are white, their skin is a dead gray, and they move like badly strung puppets. This particular species isn’t pretty by any means, but these are even more unsettling than their hovering counterparts.

 

“I don’t like the looks of this,”

 

There’s another shriek behind them and out of the corner of his eye, Obi-wan sees Vader turn towards the sound.

 

“Look out!” one of the clones says before the chamber fills with blaster fire and the swishing of lightsabers. The way he cuts through them reminds him of when he was first learning how to use a saber and the training droids rolled towards him at a sedate pace. It feels almost like a slaughter as his lightsaber cuts down the gurgling creatures until he hears, “I can’t stop them” from one of the clones on Vader’s side and then he looks around. He watches as a creature takes one, two, three blaster shots to the head and gets back up.

 

“Arugh!” Two clones scream as they’re dragged down into one of the catacombs. They can’t fight these, not if they have to protect the clones at the same time because their blasters are useless against these things.

 

“Back everyone! Fall back!” he orders, “Take out the tunnel supports, it’s the only way!”

 

They escape out another small tunnel, combat rolling out of the rock’s crushing reach. They’re all breathing heavily when Vader lets out an angry curse, “Fierfek, why did it have to be zombies?”

 

“Zombies,” Obi-wan asks through deep breaths, “Is that what those things are called?”

 

“Well, that’s what the sith call those kind of creatures at least,” Vader clarifies, “It’s a result of some types necromancy.”

 

“What?” Cody asks, sounding perfectly bewildered, “What’s necromancy?”

 

“The art of bringing back the dead,” Vader says far too calmly. Obi-wan feels that bringing back the dead is a big deal and should be treated as such, “Now if we can figure out the type of necromancy, we may be able to undo it”

 

“I’ve heard of a Geonosian hive mind so powerful, so strong, it can maintain its connection with its warriors even after they’ve died.”

 

Vader looks pensive, trying to shift through his limited knowledge of necromancy, “Probably some kind of parasite then, one that acts like a transmitter. Easiest way to deal with those are either destroy body and stop the parasite from moving to a new host or destroy whatever is controlling the hive mind”

 

“Neither of those sound easy, Vader” Obi-wan snaps causing Vader shrugs, nothing he can do about that, “We’ll probably need to call for reinforcements”

 

Vader nods and moves to do just that before he notices the unhappy sound emitting from his comm. “No signal.” He spits. Which, of course makes perfectly reasonable sense if Obi-wan stops to think about it, they are pretty far underground.

 

Only other way is to.. “You two, try to head to the surface and contact the ship”

 

“Yes sir!” The clones salute in sink and start heading towards the exit.

 

“Turn off your flashlights and try to move as silently as possible.” The two clones look back at Vader confused, “These kind of creatures are attracted to light and noise, they can’t actually see very well at all but they can tell where a light is coming from and hearing is one of the only senses they have left, so they use that to find things usually”

 

The clones turn off their flashlights while giving a quick thanks and quickly move towards the surface. Vader looks towards the tunnel they exited from, a clear desire to follow written on his face.

 

“Don’t” Obi-wan commands, “We need you down here. You’re the only one who has any idea what these things are”

 

“Then let’s all go,” Vader counters, “It’ll be safer if we don’t divide up”

 

“Yes, but every moment we waste puts Luminara’s life in greater danger”

 

“Alright,” Vader finally concedes after ten seconds of compilation, “Let’s get going then”

 

Commander Cody motions towards a tunnel that hopefully leads them farther down the catacombs and the squad sets off.

 

This time, there is no room for wandering thoughts. Each step is quiet, followed by another sweep of the area before taking the next. It honestly probably doesn’t take that long of a time, but when every muscle in your body is wound tighter than spring, seconds move almost eternally slow before the air changes.

 

“It’s warmer down here,” Obi-wan whispers, glancing over at his sith companion who looks vaguely sick.

 

“Forget the heat,” Vader replies, a little less quiet than Obi-wan, “It smells down here”

 

“Keep your voice down,” Obi-wan chides and Vader glares, but doesn’t say anything further.

 

They press themselves against a wall, almost gasping in surprise and disgust at the sight before them.

 

It’s a large enclave, perhaps only slightly smaller than the entrance to the temple, filled with the various undead Geonosians moving pods to the ground below. The only light is from Master Luminara’s electric bindings, giving it a blue glow that highlights the central figure within, which certainly didn’t need any highlighting. The creature body looks like some kind of disgusting mixture of a snake and worm with each section a slightly smaller size before tampering off suddenly into a more normal Geonosian body where two sets of arms rest. The head of the creature looks vaguely Geonosian, but more like the dead ones than their living brethren with something that looks vaguely like a headdress even the Nubians would think was over the top resting on top. Frankly, it’s a shocking and odd sight that freezes the whole group for a few seconds.

 

Vader’s the first one to recover, “I have a bad feeling about this”

 

“It must be the queen.” Obi-wan says, mentally comparing the statue and the actual thing before deciding either the Geonosians are not good at portraits or it was made when the queen was much younger and not as big.

 

“I see General Luminara, sir,” Cody says, “She’s suspended near the throne.”

 

Vader shoots Obi-wan an exasperated look before asking, “What about Poggle?”

“He’s speaking with the.. queen” Cody replies, tripping over the word queen partly because he doesn’t want think of that thing and some of the other lovely royals he’s met as the same thing and he saw his General stroking his beard.

 

Everyone in the 212th Attack Battalion knew that when General Kenobi stroked his beard, he was thinking up a generally-seen-as-crazy plan. Usually involving explosions, catching people as they jumped out windows, and good amount of the General volunteering as a punching bag. They all would complain until the sun went down about their General’s hare-brained schemes, but they did admit those were the most fun.

 

“Obi-wan and I can get the soldiers, think you guys can take out the queen?” Vader asks, looking at the clones eagerly. He hadn’t been around Obi-wan long enough to pick up on the General’s little quirk.

 

“Now, let’s not rush into things,” Obi-wan placates, “We could try talking to it first”

 

The sith apprentice looks at the jedi in surprise and disbelief, for the first time glad he didn’t have his helmet so the knight would be able to see his facial expression. Obi-wan ignores it, an odd light in his eyes that Qui-gon would know he only got when he was curious.

 

“Vader, don’t you wonder why they took Luminara captive? Why not just kill her?”

 

“She’s leverage, she’s a hostage”

 

“Leverage for what? No, there’s something else going on here and these zombies are connected to it”

 

“Fine, We’ll try it your way, jedi” Vader pouts vaguely annoyed, “But I want you to know I think this is a bad idea”

 

“So glad you agree, and noted” Obi-wan smirks triumphantly, before turning towards Cody, “Set your men up around the perimeter and on my signal, shine your lights at the queen. That should blind both the queen and the zombies momentarily. Hopefully that’ll be enough confusion for us to get Luminara out of there”

 

“What about when they pursue us, sir? Our blasters barely scratch the things”

 

“We’ll have to bury them,” Vader chimes in, “That’ll slow them down at least. Shoot out these support pillars and the whole place will collapse”

 

“Ready?” Obi-wan asks and the two other men nod, “Let’s go”

 

The jedi and sith move towards the center of the enclave. One very calmly and the other with a tense hand on his lightsaber. The zombies part, making room for the two visitors to approach the queen while Master Luminara drowsily lifts her head.

 

“How did you know they wouldn’t just attack us,” Vader whispers, slightly impressed but mostly annoyed.

 

“Because I make observations, while you think with your lightsaber,” the knight whispers back.

 

The sith lord lets out a little chuckle, “I didn’t think jedi could that kind of joke”

 

It takes a moment for Obi-wan to realize what the sith meant and he almost stops walking while his face heats in mortification, “That’s not what I meant!”

 

“Oh?” All trace of annoyance is gone from Vader’s voice as he notes that Obi-wan is rather adorable when flustered. He’ll definitely do that more often, “Do tell, Knight Kenobi, what you meant”

 

Obi-wan feels his face heat up further at the slight purr of Vader’s voice, who is apparently taking some sort of revenge on him for setting up this plan, “Doesn’t matter, I wanted to know what she’s after and setting ourselves as bait seemed like a good idea.”

 

“Careful about getting yourself tied up, Kenobi” Vader jokingly purrs again, trying to hold back a full faced grin when Obi-wan splutters, “You never know who might want to keep you that way”

The knight glares, which would rather intimidating if not for the blush covering from his cheeks to the tops of his ears.

 

“Don’t worry, when you prove yourself to be incompetent as a commander, I’ll be ready.” Vader takes mercy on the poor embarrassed knight and leads the conversation away from the knight’s accidental blunder.

 

“That’s reassuring.” The blush begins to fade the slightest amount, and thank god it’s dark in here because he really doesn’t want Master Luminara or his men to see him so flustered. They finally stop some six feet in front of the platform and the Mirialan jedi looks at them with the slightest relief in her eyes.

 

“I thought I told you not to follow me, Knight Kenobi” She greets with a heavy emphasis on the ‘not’

 

“Yes well, I learnt well from my Master on not listening to any Council members,” Obi-wan offers a falsely contrite shrug.

 

“That explains it,” she acknowledges before the queen begins to croak.

 

“You. You.. are the creatures that attacked Geonosia,” she begins before it turns into some kind of shriek, “Why have you… come before me?”

 

“Your majesty, it is a pleasure to finally meet you” Obi-wan opens diplomatically, “I am Obi-wan Kenobi, and this Darth Vader”

 

Vader gives a haphazard wave at his name.

 

“It is our sad duty to inform you that your rule is at an end” Vader can’t help but notice that the jedi sounds anything but sad, in fact, he sounds kind of giddy.

The queen doesn’t seem to notice his tone though, “Yoouu not dictate to me, Jedi. My empire is forever.”

 

Oh how many times has Vader hear that phrase before, Master Plagueis once spoke of the plan for the New Sith Empire as an empire that would last forever. Luckily, he stopped caring about that plan after Sidious attacked him and he instead focused all his energy into getting revenge on his former apprentice. Still, Vader remembers many conversations between Sidious and Plagueis about the upcoming eternal empire.

 

“It doesn’t appear that way, your grace,” Obi-wan placates before his tone turns demanding, “You will release the Jedi Luminara and submit to Republic law”

 

The queen lets out a wild sounding screech, longer and louder than the ones before, “I no submit”

 

The zombies begin to close in on the two force users, prompting Vader to unleash his saber. Obi-wan moves his hand to cover Vader’s own, “No, patience, Vader. Wait.”

 

Annoyed Vader turns off the saber and two of the queen’s minions snatch both of their weapons out of their grasps. Obi-wan begins to speak again, “Majesty, destroying us shall only make the Republic’s judgement of you harsher”

 

“Hrmm.. No Jedi. No!” the monarch croaks, “I no destroy you. I devour you! I control you. I had but one jedi before young Poggle bring but now I have three”

 

“I would like to say I’m not a jedi,” Vader interjects offended, “I am a sith lord. Different things.”

 

“Quite,” Obi-wan nods in agreement. Their potential devourer doesn’t pay them any heed and instead continues.

 

“Now, watch as my child enters your jedi friend and once inside, her mind becomes my mind, her thoughts become my thoughts”

 

Poggle the lesser holds a squirming worm-like thing near Luminara’s face and the same odd glint appeared in Obi-wan’s eyes as his curiosity was being answer.

 

“Looks like you were right, some kind of parasite!” The overly eager, but still calm jedi says to his companion, who looks like he’d really like to kill everything in this room, including the jedi in front of him.

 

“Great, find out everything you wanted to know yet?”

 

“No wait!” Obi-wan replies hurriedly, “I want to see how it works”

 

“I normally don’t particularly care about what a jedi wants, but in this case, I don’t think Master Luminara wants to know”

 

“I normally don’t agree with sith lords, but in this case he’s correct,” the jedi master calls out, tilting away from the parasite.

 

“I’m curious. The more we know the better”

 

“I disagree!” Luminara’s voice takes on a slight edge of panic.

 

“So do I.” Vader looks at the curious jedi with a hint of defeat.

 

“Come now, which do you think it’ll enter, the nose or the ear?”

 

Vader sighs, conceding to the jedi for the third time today, “I think the nose.”

 

The worm starts to wrap itself around Luminara’s head, “Uh, I hope this part of the plan”

 

Obi-wan’s grin trips sharp, “Isn’t it always? Cody, now!”

 

And they’re off. The clones shine the light straight into the queen’s eyes causing her to emit a pained screech. Obi-wan and Vader pull their lightsabers to their hands and begin to slice. Vader, having the advantage of Luminara’s lightsaber as well, makes his way to the jedi master first, cutting her down and handing over her lightsaber which she points straight at Poggle. Obi-wan, meanwhile, stays back and pulls the parasite to his hand while studying it curiously.

 

“You’re coming with us, Poggle” Vader stays, pulling out his binders and slapping them roughly on the ruler’s wrists.

 

As they move towards the exit, Vader notices a parasite is squirming around in Obi-wan’s hand. He quickly dashes forward, slapping the offending parasite down, causing a protest from Obi-wan.

 

“I was going to study that!” he says mournfully as the parasite gets squashed under Vader’s boot.

 

“I’ll lend you a book about zombies,” Vader deadpans, “If you’re really that curious. Come on let’s get out of here!”

 

Obi-wan gives one last mournful look at the squashed worm before taking off towards the others.

 

“Take out the supports!” Cody yells as soon as the Generals move out of the enclave into the relative safety of the tunnels. Rocks begin to fall onto the zombies as each of the supports are taken out one by one.

 

“They’re still coming!” Crys shouts while still shooting with his blaster. Cody, who has now switched over to his favorite pistol, motions with his free hand to get going and Crys immediately runs to catch up with the others.

 

Meanwhile, near the front of the tunnel, Master Luminara points upwards towards a hole, “This is our way out!”

 

“Start climbing,” Obi-wan orders after Master Luminara leaps into the hole while Vader pushes Poggle in his direction. Taking the prisoner in one hand, Obi-wan leaps up into the shaft as well. The squad follows shortly after that, Vader using the force to push back any zombies coming close to them before jumping into the hole himself. The zombies attempt to clamor into the hole with little success, their lack of awareness and various falling rocks working against them.

 

“Vader look out!” Master Luminara calls down as one of the rocks narrowly avoids his head. Beneath the surface, the enclave fully caves in, making the various holes an air pressure geyser. The force users land on their feet, the clones mostly land on their feet but a few land in an undignified heap on the floor, but pull themselves up quickly before the temple falls on top of them. They move out of the blast radius, each one them panting heavily and completely covered head to toe with a mixture of dust, rock and sand.

 

“Well,” Qui-gon Jinn comments, the 501st and two 212th standing behind him, “Looks like you didn’t need backup after all”

 

Vader barely resists the temptation of flipping the jedi master off in reply.

\--

 

“Zombies?” Darth Plagueis asks when they give their report later. His voice is oddly similar to Obi-wan’s, curious, excited, and overly giddy, “I trust you got a sample of one the parasites, Lord Vader”

 

“No, Master,” Vader replies, realizing now that getting that parasite would have appeased some of his previous mistake and prevented him from making this one, “We didn’t have an appropriate container to keep the specimen from contaminating our allies ”

 

“I was holding one just fine!” Obi-wan retorts, “We could be studying it right now!”

 

“You also could have been a mindless zombie right now,” Vader turns away from the slightly disappointed look of his Master to the other person in the room who thinks it’s a good idea to study parasites that turn people into zombies, “You’re welcome”

 

“Buried, these creatures are. Think about them we must not,” Master Yoda says, cutting the two bantering members of the meeting, “On your next assignment, you must go”

 

“Actually, Master Yoda,” Darth Plagueis cuts in overly sweet obviously fake way, “Lord Vader needs to return to our base to get his permanent arm. I want to make sure nothing goes wrong for my dear apprentice”

 

“How long, installation will take, hmm?” Master Yoda replies, showing no sign he understood or cared about the sith’s obviously fake tone, “Needed, they are”

 

“Oh, I don’t think more than four standard days, unless there are unforeseen complications”

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Obi-wan sees Vader swallow at the words.

 

“That doesn’t include travel time though,” Master Windu cuts in, sending a glare towards Plagueis, “How long will it take to get to your base?”

 

“From Geonosis?” Plagueis hums, contemplating the answer.

 

“Two standard days, 3 hours and five minutes,” Vader says, shocking most of the room with his rather quick calculation, “From our base to Coursant, it will take 3 days, 5 hours and 30 minutes”

 

“That’s over a standard week in travel time alone,” Master Windu shakes his head, “By then Mandolore could potentially be embroiled in a civil war again”

 

“Lord Vader could meet you at Mandolore, it’s only a few hours in hyperspace from our base,” Plagueis proposes, “And if Knight Kenobi doesn’t object, he could stay the layover at our base instead of wasting all that time traveling to Coursant just to be shipped back out”

 

As much as Obi-wan does not like the idea of heading to a sith lord’s home, he can’t really find a logical argument against it and it seems the other jedi in the room can’t either, “I wouldn’t mind at all, Lord Plagueis”

 

Obi-wan looks over to Vader, whose overly expressive face is a mixture of shock, horror, and resignation, and gives him what he hopes is a comforting smile.

 

“Wonderful,” Lord Plagueis exclaims, “I’ll be seeing you two soon then”

 

Obi-wan has a bad feeling about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the long wait, I will simply say I was feeling particularly poor these last two weeks. I hope the extra long chapter makes up for it. Not beta-read, so if you see any glaring mistakes, let me know
> 
> Next time: Meeting the Master


	9. Meeting the Master

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vader goes home, wishes he didn't. Obi-wan goes to Vader's home and wishes he didn't. Darth Plagueis just likes fucking people over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for implied torture and child abuse. If you wanna just skip this chapter I'll leave a little summary down at the bottom for you.

Malachor is a very dull planet. A desolate wasteland of white sand covers most of the planet, the poles being the two exceptions with a nice gray rock. On the bright side, it means it’s terribly easy to land a ship on it. Which is good because Vader doesn’t have any brain power to devote to the task. His mind is currently swimming with possible punishments his Master has in store. He’s barely thought of anything else. The sith’s completely absorbed and running more on autopilot than not. Which is why he doesn’t notice when a jedi knight enters the cockpit and leans between the seats to peer outside.

 

“Why Lord Vader, you make a jedi nervous landing in the middle of nowhere like this,” Obi-wan jokes, giving the sith lord a little jolt of surprise, “Especially since I don’t see a sith temple outside”

 

“It’s underground,” Vader replies good-naturedly, worries pushed to the back of his mind with the knight’s teasing nature, “besides, if I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have spent the last few days stuck on a ship with you. Save myself from dealing with an annoyance the whole trip”

 

“I don’t know what that last part means,” Obi-wan grins, “But underground? Do the sith normally build their temples there?”

 

“It wasn’t always underground, at least, I don’t think it was,” Vader says as the ship lands gently against the white ground. He flips a few switches, continuing, “We need to walk from here”

 

The knight looks out to the desert and sighs, “Oh joy”

 

“It’s not a long one, don’t worry” the sith reassures as they exit the ship “We just need to get to the elevator”

 

“The what?” Obi-wan blinks, “Why is there an elevator?”

 

The sith shrugs in response. There’s an elevator because it’d take too long to walk down with stairs, also known as, the reason that elevator’s exist in the first place. If the jedi was too stupid to figure that out, Vader overestimated the man greatly.

 

“Stop,” Vader announces and the knight obediently stops while looking around for the said elevator. For a moment he decides it might be an invisible elevator, because there’s nothing around for miles, or the sith might be pulling his leg. Then the ground jolts down from under his feet. Looking down in the jedi version of alarm, Obi-wan watches as a neat circular platform begins to lower its way down.

 

The walls of the elevator shaft are unnaturally smooth, and fairly recent if Obi-wan remembers his lessons from Qui-gon correctly. Why the his Master thought Obi-wan needed to know about rock formations, he’ll never know. But he can tell that the elevator is a recent addition, which while useful information, doesn’t make up for the hours of geology lectures.

 

The elevator stops, pulling Obi-wan out from his musings of the benefits of teaching padawans rock formations. The room they’re in now is unremarkable besides for the fact it looks to be significantly older than the elevator. Whatever it was before, the two sith had apparently remodeled to turn into a landing platform. Interesting, Obi-wan thinks as Vader wordlessly leaves the room through an unassuming archway. He follows barely two steps behind.

 

Obi-wan gives a soft exclamation of surprise. The archway lead to a set of stairs that gave you an vantage to see everything. It was large, larger than any natural cave structure Obi-wan had ever seen and filled with ruins that looked like an odd mixture of warzone and partly excavated temple decorations and what the knight assumes is the actual sith temple. The temple is.. ominous, to say the least. Sharp lines, pointy corners, a tiered shape that glowed faintly red against the dark background of fake sky. The sight is both magnificent and terrifying, much like the sith themselves.

 

Needless to say, Obi-wan spends a good three minutes staring at the temple before Vader calls from two flights of stairs down below, “Kenobi! Are you coming?”

 

The knight jolts for the second time that day before hastily making his way down the stairs to catch up to his guide, “Sorry, I just wasn’t imagining.. well this” He makes a sweeping gesture at the ruins. Vader looks a little smug, like he had something to do with the building of this elaborate ruse. He doesn’t say anything, however and continues to guide the knight towards the temple proper.

 

“I do have a question though, why not make the elevator big enough to take the ship down?”

 

\--

 

“Welcome, Jedi Kenobi” the sith master says from the shadows when they get to a set of stairs, startling Obi-wan, and sending Vader down on his knee, “I hope your trip was pleasant?”

 

“It was Lord Plagueis,” Obi-wan glances sideways at Vader, feeling uneasy at the sith’s subservient posture and almost unnoticeable trembling. Is this how all sith master-apprentice relationships are? If so, the knight can’t imagine why anyone would choose it.

 

“Wonderful!” Plagueis says, playing the ever pleasant host seamlessly, “I hope you don’t find the temple too off-putting, I understand it looks quite different from the jedi one.”

 

“It’s certainly…unique”

 

Plagueis gives a mock laugh, “That it is, that it is.” He takes a moment to compose himself, “Would you like a quick tour?”

 

No, he really wouldn’t actually. He’d like to go back to the ship and stay there until Vader comes back. It would be rude however to refuse his host, so he gives a small very fraudulent smile.

 

“Yes,” Obi-wan forces his tone to be polite and cheery, “That would be nice.”

 

“Let’s get started then,” Darth Plagueis says, gesturing further into the temple. Either not noticing the jedi’s unease, or more likely, enjoying it.

 

Obi-wan takes a step forward before realizing Vader hasn’t moved from his knelt position. He glances back and Plagueis’s eyes follow the movement. He eyes Vader with a barely concealed sadistic gleam.

 

“Ah, apprentice,” Plagueis motions for Vader to rise, “I believe you have something to do in the lab, do you not?”

 

Vader looks confused for a moment before his eyes widen in understanding, “Yes, Master.”

 

“Well you ought to go do it then,” the sith master mocks, “I’ll meet you in there after I give our guest a tour.”

 

Vader gives a deep bow, “Of course, Master.”

 

The sith apprentice turns and walks down a tunnel that was hidden in the shadows, leaving the predatory sith master and the nervous jedi knight alone.

\--

 

There are two kind of mad scientist labs, one dark and dingy with an eerily green glow for lighting or a pristine completely clean white room that burnt under your eyelids when you shut your eyes. Darth Plagueis’s lab is the latter.

 

Newer than the rest of the temple’s construction, Darth Plagueis’s lab is a mad scientist’s dream. The lab was customized with the latest technologies, and most of the instruments at a more comfortable height for a Muun, who generally were taller than most humanoid species. It even held gurney with optional restraints that could expand or contract based on the subject being placed on it.

 

Vader hated that gurney. Human younglings are prone to squirming, Vader was no exception, and Sith Master’s rarely had the patience to deal with their research subjects trying to escape sharp needles; hence the gurney with optional restraints. Perfect way to get your subjects to stop moving and traumatize the youngling in your care at the same time. Especially if you were prone to leave the subject while you inputted that days data. Honestly it’s understandable why Vader hates that gurney.

 

It’s also understandable why he’s terrified when his Master orders him to lay on it. The sith master takes it slow, each restraint carefully tightly placed, while Vader’s heart beats wilder with every one. Eventually, when no more restraints are left, Darth Plagueis looms over the gurney and looks his panicking apprentice in the eye.

 

“My creation,” he smiles, “Don’t look so worried. I’ve decided to forgive you for your carelessness”

 

His words don’t reach Vader, his apprentice too far gone in a panic to hear anything his Master has to say. No matter, he doesn’t actually mean them. A sith does not forgive, a sith does not forget. The Master hums and moves to place electrodes for monitor Vader’s vitals. His creation’s heartbeat is a little high, and his breath a little fast, but given the amount of panic pouring off it, the sith finds it to be an acceptable measurement.

 

“You see,” the Master says, holding up a needle filled with a small amount of green liquid, “It is partly my fault you weren’t prepared, I didn’t train you enough. I thought you were ready to go out into the war, but it seems I made a mistake. So, now, while you’re here, we’re going to work on one of your weaker skills.”

 

He plunges the needle into Vader’s arm. The drug begins to move quickly through the victims blood, heightening every sensation into something on the precipice of pain.                                                                              

 

“You were never very good at resisting torture, Lord Vader.”

 

\--

 

The Sith temple, Obi-wan learns, is structured much like labyrinth. It’s filled with twists and turns and traps, so many that Obi-wan isn’t exactly sure he wants to leave the room Darth Plagueis showed him to alone. While he probably could find his way around, the sith lord hinted that the temple had some sort of sentience and enjoyed playing tricks on poor wandering jedi. Frankly it sounded like a magical school for younglings in a book he read a long time ago and he wasn’t going to take chances with it. Hence the reason he hasn’t gone to explore despite the fact he’s been stuck in a bare room for at least a good three hours.

 

He’d be more sure of the time if his wrist comm hadn’t gone on the fritz after they got under the surface. It would also help if he hadn’t mediated earlier too. He can only guess by how hungry he is and how bored he’s gotten.

 

 

A quiet thump pulls Obi-wan from his musings. He scrambles out of the cot and into the hallway, something in the back of his mind urging him to see what just happened. He takes sharp breathe at the sight.

 

If he thought that Vader looked bad after Geonosis, well, that’s because he didn’t have anything to compare it to. He looks a hundred times worse now. He’s slumped against the wall, hair damp with sweat, face pale and hands trembling with what Obi-wan can only assume is pain. The knight goes to take a step forward but stops when Vader’s wild and unrecognizing eyes meet his.

 

Obi-wan puts his hands out in a placating gesture, “Hey, calm down. It’s me. I’m not going to hurt you”

 

He kneels slowly, Vader’s distrustful gaze still boring holes into his skull, “Are you okay? Do you need to me call Lord Plagueis?”

 

The sith’s eyes slid from distrust to full out panic at the name. “Okay, Okay, I won’t call him.” The knight gently rests a hand on the sith’s shoulder, “Is your room around here?”

 

Vader nods, looking more relaxed at the previous reassurance.

 

“I’m going to help you up and take you to your room, is that okay?”

 

Vader looks confused at the offer for a moment before, once again, hesitantly nodding. Obi-wan pulls Vader up and begins to help him move down the hallway. It’s a slow walk with Vader’s feet dragging more than stepping, and Obi-wan’s unwillingness to push him to move faster. Eventually they make it to a completely nondescript door and stumble into the room together.

 

Obi-wan lowers Vader slowly onto the sleep couch. He’s gotten a little color back, not much, but enough that Obi-wan doesn’t think he’s been bleeding out while they were walking down the hallway. Still, he looks like he needs some sort of first aid.

 

“Do you have a kit in here?”

 

Vader blearily opens his amber eyes, “I’m fine,” he croaks. He sounds like he’s been screaming for hours, “No permanent damage”

 

“While I’m relieved to hear that,” Obi-wan scans the room, hoping for the kit to be in eyesight since Vader doesn’t seem inclined to share, “even temporary damage hurts.”

 

“I just need some sleep,” Vader grumbles, not quite meeting Obi-wan in the eye.

 

The knight makes a disbelieving face, “I’m going to get my kit”

 

And he leaves. When he comes back, first aid kit in hand, Vader’s breathes have evened out into the slow rhythm of sleep. It’s a little rude to stay, but Obi-wan does anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary:
> 
> Sith temple is pretty. Plagueis is creepy and mean. Obi-wan helps Vader to his room and sits with him again because he does that.
> 
> Up next: Mediation and Realizations.


	10. Mediation and Realizations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vader deals with someone being nice, mistakes his own feelings, and has an arm. Obi-wan deals with Vader being confusing and tries his best.

Waking up to find Kenobi in his room is strange for a multitude of reasons. Chiefly among them, Vader doesn’t remember what happen last night. That fact should alarm him, but quite frankly, he’s warm and slightly sore in a way that makes him want to go back to sleep, especially since the chrono reads ‘way too early’. He rolls over to attempt to do just that, perfectly content to solve the odd location of Kenobi mystery later, and the fog of sleep scatters from his mind.

 

He hurts. He hurts a lot. Vader bites back a whimper, not willing to wake Kenobi up while he feels so vulnerable. Oh, his Master got creative didn’t he? It would be a miracle if he’s ready to go to Mandolore in a few days. Why did he have to try to move? There was no way he was getting back to sleep now.

 

Which left an interesting issue to solve; what to do about Obi-wan Kenobi sleeping against his wall. On one hand he could leave the knight slumped against the wall, sneak out of his own bedroom, and let Kenobi wake up on his own. On the other artificial hand, he could wake Kenobi up, deal with awkwardly thanking Kenobi for not kicking him while he was down, and go work on his new arm without the guilt of leaving a… friend… in an uncomfortable position.

 

As a Sith Lord, he should probably just leave Kenobi to his fate of a sore neck and achy muscles in the morning. He doesn’t want to do that. It’s an unsithly thing, but Obi-wan did help him into bed tonight. Sighing to himself, Vader pulls his aching muscles out of bed and walks with a slight limp to the sleeping red head. He kneels down carefully.

 

“Kenobi..” Vader whispers, trying to wake up the snoozing knight without startling him too badly, “Kenobi!”

 

Obi-wan scrunches his eyes and lets out a little low pitched whine. If he wasn’t already annoyed at having to kneel down, Vader might have been amused at the reaction. It wasn’t very Jedi-like to whine when someone tried to wake you up.

 

“Kenobi!” he tries again, a little louder. Obi-wan responds in the exact same way. Apparently waking the knight up when he didn’t want to get up wasn’t easy. Vader let out a little huff of frustration. Honestly, he goes out of his way to make Kenobi more comfortable and this is what he does in return? Rude.

 

Forgetting his soreness in wake of frustration, Vader sits back on his heels. He contemplates for a moment before his bed catches the corner of his eye. If Kenobi didn’t want to wake up to walk to bed himself, Vader will just carry him there. Simple easy solution that would probably take a lot less time. It’s a perfect plan.

 

The soreness returns with a vengeance as he scoops the knight into his arms and deposits him straight into the bed. He watches with more than a slight hint of amusement as Kenobi immediately turns over onto his belly and tries to wiggle deeper into the mattress.

 

His amusement keeps a smile on his face all the way to his workshop.

 

\---

Two hours later, and he can’t stop thinking about Kenobi. It’s driving him absolutely insane. Something about the man has him obsessing and distracting him from his work in front of him. Maybe he was worried that the Jedi would go insane surrounded by all this darkness. Or perhaps, he was concerned for security reasons. The possibilities were endless.

 

It certainly had nothing to do with how gentle the man’s hands were. How his eyes light up when he notices something. Nothing to do with how the Jedi’s force signature felt safe and warm. Or how he always has an array of witty retorts ready. Nothing to do with the way he moved gracefully in the battlefield or how clever his battle plans were.

 

Definitely nothing to do with those.

 

He groans and buries his face in his hands. Oh who was he kidding? He likes Obi-wan Kenobi. He wants to spend all his time in the company of the Jedi. He wants to learn how the man looks when trying new foods, when he’s training with his saber. He wants to know if every morning is a struggle for the knight or if today was some sort of fluke.

 

He wants to be friends with Obi-wan Kenobi. Sith Lords aren’t known for making friends, acquaintances perhaps, but never friends.

 

He’s so doomed.

\--

 

Waking up to find himself in a bed is strange for a multitude of reasons. Chiefly among them, Obi-wan is very sure he fell asleep against the wall last night. He doesn’t see an injured Sith Lord either. So he’s either done some rather phenomenal sleep walking or someone has moved him to a bed. He hauls himself into a sitting position. This is not the room that Lord Plagueis showed him yesterday. But Vader’s not here, so it can’t be his room right?

 

Except that it is.

 

That means that sometime during the night, Vader woke up, saw Obi-wan sleeping against the wall, decided to move Obi-wan to the bed and leave. A Sith Lord put him to bed. That’s going on his record with the rest of the ‘weird shit that happens’.

 

Shaking his head, Obi-wan decides to leave that thought alone for now and focus on where his companion has run off to. The man probably shouldn’t be out running around. He wasn’t doing so well last night after all.

 

He hauls himself out of the bed. Obi-wan can think of two places where the Sith might go, to breakfast or to another bed. He glances at the chrono, at this time he’s likely at breakfast. Thankfully Lord Plagueis showed him the kitchen last night and he even remembers how to get there.

 

\--

 

Breakfast had the potential of being the best he’s ever had. The only thing marring the practically perfect meal was the fact he was sitting alone in dark cafeteria surrounded by the darkside in a Sith temple.

 

Mid-way through Obi-wan’s Twi’lek toast, the door slides open to reveal Lord Vader. He looks decidedly better than last night. The color has come back to his cheeks and his eyes don’t look as wild.

 

“Good Morning,” Obi-wan calls cheerfully, “You look like you’re feeling better”

 

“I am,” the Sith replies before turning his gaze towards the floor. He almost looks bashful. “Erm, thanks..for helping last night”

 

“Your welcome,” Obi-wan says, “Were you the one who moved me to the bed?”

 

Vader nods. He’s still looking at the floor but Obi-wan can swear he can see the lightest blush on Vader’s cheeks.

 

“Thanks, I’d woken up with horribly sore if you hadn’t. By the way, what happened?”

 

The bashful look gives way to a dark variant. The dark side begins to chitter excitedly and Obi-wan can’t help the pulse of fear that runs through his system at the sight.

 

“I made a mistake," the Sith growls, “and I paid the price”

 

Obi-wan wonders what kind of experiment Lord Vader was running that a mistake produced that kind of results. Certainly nothing good at least. He chews the last piece of toast thoughtfully as Vader gathers up a rather large breakfast. The Sith Lord plops down across the table and digs into his meal with a vigor that reminds Obi-wan of a rancor.

 

“So when are you getting your new arm?” Obi-wan asks once Vader looks a little calmer.

 

Vader swallows a rather large bite of egg, “After I finish building it, which will probably be tomorrow but it could be today”

 

Obi-wan opens his mouth to reply when Vader pulls something metallic out of his cloak and places it on the table. It looks like a piece of scrap metal at first, but Obi-wan quickly notices otherwise.

 

“Is that your arm?” the Knight asks appalled at the idea that someone’s arm might be sitting on the table he’s eating at. Severed limbs do not belong on dining tables, even if they’re metallic.

 

“Yea!” Vader replies with an eager look on his face. “What do you think?”

 

The knight looks down the half put together arm. To him, it seems to be a mess of wires and circuitry. Then again, he only has the bare bones knowledge of mechanics so it could be a revolutionary design for all he knows.

 

“It’s..” Obi-wan starts before glancing up at Vader’s face and faltering at the overly eager look he’s getting, “..nice?”

“You don’t like it?”

 

It’s amazing, Obi-wan notes, how quickly Vader goes from ‘very angry Sith’ to ‘just kicked puppy’. Though why Vader looks so crushed by the idea of him not liking the arm, Obi-wan has no clue.

 

“No, I just don’t know enough about mechanics to really give you an informed opinion,” Obi-wan placates.

 

“Oh,” Vader replies, a small smile coming to his lips before suddenly turning bashful again and shoving a forkful of egg into his mouth.

 

“You also surprised me,” Obi-wan says after a moment before the silence starts to get too awkward, “I’m not use to someone putting random limbs on the table at breakfast”

 

Vader blinks before his eyes start to widen. Apparently the Sith was so excited to show Obi-wan his arm he hadn’t thought it wasn’t appropriate to place a random limb on a table. Which was odd, because Vader hadn’t been this friendly to Obi-wan ever before.

It probably had something to with last night. Whatever happened must have left Vader feeling a little off. It was probably best to make a quick exit to preserve Lord Vader’s dignity so that when he was feeling better, he didn’t feel the need to prove his honor again. With that thought, Obi-wan shoves the last piece of bacon into his mouth before standing up.

 

“Anyway, I’m glad to see you well, Lord Vader,” he turns towards the kitchen, plate in hand, “I need to go read the mission files. Good luck with your hand”

 

He darts out the door, unbeknownst to him, leaving a forlorn Vader behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long. I started school and work. This chapter also didn't want to happen. Most of my chapters don't want to happen so there's that... This one was just extra bitchy. Thank you everyone who commented and left kudos, ya'll kept reminding me to work on this fic.
> 
> Next time: Our Third Mission (aka. To Mandolore we go!)


End file.
